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Develop different routes of influence and ‘pull’ within the customer’s organization. Your appeal as a vendor to your customers may lie in your excellent quality control program, or your governmental status as a ‘woman-owned business’ or a hard-to-beat speedy two2 hour delivery (since you own your own trucks). Regardless of what the advantage you have, find out what it is and exploit it in order to help influence your bids to outside buyers. Develop pull within the buyers’ organization from everywhere in your organization.
Examples of external influence that creates customer ‘pull’;
- Quality control: Your quality control department is second to none. If you are a drug manufacturer and your competition has caused the death of some unlucky patients, your firm will automatically emphasize your great safety record and develop strong ties with the client’s QC inspection team. You will know the names and after hour telephone numbers for all of them.
- Transportation: Your speed y deliver gets your products to the customer within two hours thus cutting inventory costs. You will know their inventory personnel and the production manager very well since you have a spotless reputation for being there on time at the last minute. Your delivery reliance makes them heroes and that ensures more orders for you.
- Accounting/finance service: Your company’s accounting department is excellent to respond. Your people call the client to let them know of credit memoes not taken or erroneous duplicate payments. Your people are quick to provides sales and use tax certificates, requested W9s, yearend 1099s, sales histories, payment histories, QC certifications, delivery tickets or acceptances that the customer requests for documentation.
- Product margin improvement: Your manufacturing firm’s engineers notice waste in the design of the client’s product and suggest cost savings without an initial request. Your engineers suggest a different cheaper material or an alternative outside service that improves the customer’s gross profit margin. These suggestions are not expected and not typical in the market among your competitors, thus you stand out. It will be hard for the client to go anywhere to find this type of service, which is of course, is your primary marketing strategy.
- Product information: If you sell rice to your customer, you provide a quality product. You automatically provide him all of the nutritional value information available. You forward a variety of recipes for preparing the product (ready for consumer handouts). Your sales personnel send suggestions for product storage (cooked and uncooked), freezing methods, multiple uses of preparation and other new updates on new hybrids and disease resistant types being introduced into the market. Your people prove to customers they are everything rice by doing so.
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